A New Zealand fisherman has been hit with fines of $26,500 (approx €14,800) for omitting to log catches of roughly 2500kg of mostly snapper, as some kahawai and gurnard.
Penalties were handed down to Hamish Robert Apatu at the Kaitaia District Court for three charges relating to gaining financial benefit by failing to report catches accurately.
In addition to the court-imposed fine of $26,500, fishing vessel Valiant was forfeited and he was ordered to pay $12,000 to have it released, plus the deemed value penalty of $21,255 for the unreported fish. Valiant targets snapper in Doubtless Bay, and generally works single day fishing trips.
‘Around 249 bins of snapper, 62 bins of kahawai, and five bins of gurnard were omitted from the official records. That’s around 2.50 tonnes of snapper and some kahawai and gurnard. It would have cost around $18,000 to gain quota in the form of Annual Catch Entitlement (ACE) to land these fish. By not having ACE, the fish taken was unaccounted for and the only motivation for doing this would be to maximise profits, commented Fisheries New Zealand regional manager fisheries compliance Phil Tasker.
Fisheries New Zealand inquiries found discrepancies in the numbers and weights of fish Mr Apatu’s company, Apatu Enterprises Limited, landed between 30th December 2020 and 30th March 2022 at his company’s Licensed Fish Receiver in Cable Bay.
‘Two-and-a-half tonnes of snapper is a lot of fish,’ Phil Tasker said.
‘When we find evidence of fishing rules being deliberately broken for financial gain, we will investigate and if appropriate place the matter before the court. The rules are there for a reason – to ensure sustainability of fishing resources into the future.’
